Warner’s 100th anniversary celebration continues with the 4K release of the Paul Newman classic Cool Hand Luke.
The Production: 4.5/5
Arrested for beheading parking meters after a drunken stupor, Luke (Paul Newman) is sentenced to two years of hard labor at a minimum security prison camp under the leadership of Captain (Strother Martin, who has one of the most famous lines in movie history – “What we have here is failure to communicate”). Luke has issues with authority, and almost immediately gets under the skin of the leader of his fellow prisoners, Dragline (George Kennedy, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this role), who challenges Luke to a boxing match. Luke is outmatched and refuses to give up, and in turn gains the respect of Dragline, who nicknames him Cool Hand Luke. Labor detail for the prisoners mostly consists of clearing weeds and brush along roads and paving roads. Luke is defiant, often challenging his prison mates to finish their work detail quickly rather than drag it out all day or betting them that he can eat 50 eggs in under an hour. But things change when his mother Arletta (Jo Van Fleet) dies. Fearing he may escape to attend the funeral, Captain places him in solitary confinement rather than allow him to continue on work detail. This leads to the prison bosses grinding him down, forcing him to quite literally dig his own grave before escaping one last time.
Having worked exclusively in television, Stuart Rosenberg made his theatrical feature-length debut with Cool Hand Luke, and one of the strengths of the film is its casting. In addition to Kennedy and Martin, the film also featured supporting roles by J.D. Cannon (who would later be known as the police chief on McCloud), Clifton James (who would later be typecast as a redneck sheriff in Superman II and Live and Let Die, among many others), Ralph Waite (The Waltons), Dennis Hopper, Wayne Rogers (TV’s M*A*S*H), and (Harry) Dean Stanton. The film also features beautiful cinematography by legendary Conrad Hall (American Beauty, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid).
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
Warner’s new 2160p HEVC-encoded transfer includes a tasteful HDR10 grading that breathes some life into the colors that appeared so drab in the 2008 Blu-ray included in this package (which was encoded in VC-1). Contrast gets a nice upgrade, featuring deeper blacks and brighter whites, both appearing without noticeable crush or bloom. Film grain appears natural without being distracting, and overall clarity is a major improvement over the previous Blu-ray release.
Audio: 5/5
Audio gets a nice upgrade over the previous Blu-ray’s lossy Dolby Digital 1.0 mono with a lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono track. The lossless encode does the film justice (no pun intended), offering higher fidelity and a wider dynamic range that give the track a bit more life, despite it being just mono. Dialogue is clearer, Lalo Schifrin’s score has more room to breathe, and sound effects like gunshots, punches, and the like are much more dynamic.
Special Features: 3/5
Kudos again to Warner for including the commentary track on the UHD disc, which includes the half-hour documentary and a trailer.
UHD Disc
Audio Commentary by Eric Lax: Lax wrote the biography Newman: A Celebration, and has a lot to say about the production in this engaging commentary track.
A Natural-Born Shaker: Making “Cool Hand Luke” (upscaled 1080p; 28:47): Director Stuart Rosenberg, Newman biographer Eric Lax, screenwriter Frank Pierson, novelist Donn Pearce, and actors Ralph Waite, George Kennedy, Clifton James, Lou Antonio and Anthony Zerbe reminisce on the making of the film.
Theatrical Trailer (upscaled 1080p; 2:48)
Blu-ray Disc
Audio Commentary by Eric Lax
A Natural-Born Shaker: Making “Cool Hand Luke” (480i; 28:47)
Theatrical Trailer (480i; 2:48)
Digital Copy: An insert contains a code to redeem a digital copy in UHD on Movies Anywhere.
Overall: 4.5/5
Cool Hand Luke has never looked or sounded better than it does in this new 4K release.
Cool Hand Luke (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital) […
$16.99 $14.33
Todd Erwin has been a reviewer at Home Theater Forum since 2008. His love of movies began as a young child, first showing Super 8 movies in his backyard during the summer to friends and neighbors at age 10. He also received his first movie camera that year, a hand-crank Wollensak 8mm with three fixed lenses. In 1980, he graduated to "talkies" with his award-winning short The Ape-Man, followed by the cult favorite The Adventures of Terrific Man two years later. Other films include Myth or Fact: The Talbert Terror and Warren's Revenge (which is currently being restored). In addition to movie reviews, Todd has written many articles for Home Theater Forum centering mostly on streaming as well as an occasional hardware review, is the host of his own video podcast Streaming News & Views on YouTube and is a frequent guest on the Home Theater United podcast.
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